My dearest ______,

Oh, oh, oh, predictable you,

Did exactly what you wanted to.

Played the part, kept eyes open wide

And vacant, a mind void of all device.

Always shocked at others’ callous,

Made skeptical by your blatant lack of

Normal flaws and normal character,

Now I know that is the safer

Route to travel down with you,

You, mediocre clown, you

Really thought that I of all

Wouldn’t see through the mirrored ball

Of planted lines and too forced scenery?

The glaring false and too green greenery

Of every look and word and move?

Oh, oh, oh predictable you.

Written October 26, 2010. Alaina Perez.

Sleepy Hollow

A woman alone in nature

Is a curious thing.

All guards come down,

Original thought goes up the

Abounding hills overrun with life.

The blanket I lay on

Seems the only division,

Human soul meets Mother’s soil

In the only natural unity.

A woman alone in nature

Is bound to feel small,

Until an ant across her paper

Brings full conciousness of her shell.

The wind blows beneath my clothes and,

Yet, my body is unresponsive,

While my mind is running

Up and down these mounds.

A woman alone in nature,

Has lost her sense of self.

She’s sent it away for a short while,

So I can breathe again.

Written October 7, 2010. Alaina Perez.

Opening Night

Standing at the edge

Of a decision looming in,

Swaying back and forth

I feel myself give in.

I recognize the faces

And costumes I must wear,

A chest stocked full of traces

Of who I was back then.

I step into my role,

And assume the act expected,

Repeat the same discourse,

Still, fall short on lines corrected.

Receive the same applause,

Reject the same critiques.

Look past all the same flaws

Fall into the part I left behind.

My vision returns slowly,

I’m still standing at the end

Of the stage where you sit waiting,

Will I stay, or will I bend?

Written October 5, 2010. Alaina Perez.